1. I loved the WIKI idea! There were a lot of classroom WIKIs that I would like to model mine after. I liked the video sites and I love the idea of posting a blog as a center with attachments and questions to be answered. I am very excited about having all of the new tech for the classroom! I am a little worried about keeping the content up to date and note letting them get bogged down with unnecessary apps.
2. I think I am ready to move toward a technology driven classroom. I am thinking that we will have lab WIKIs where the kids can post their conclusions, sketches and pics from the work they are doing. We are like I said before going to have more content driven technology centers on both the MacBooks and the Itouches with the blogs and apps available. We are going to share our learning with our classroom learning community as well as our gradelevel learning community through the WIKI and blogs as well. We will use our Social studies time to learn about being a citizen of our class, school, state, country, ecosystem and now the digital community as well.
I took the first 21 things training. I had fun doing it, but didn't use much of it. I think this training, while containing some of the same items, came at a time when I was ready for the information and will be able to use it readily in my classroom! VERY EXCITED!
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Tool #11
Digital Citizenship
1. Security - It's very important that kids have a sense of what they need to do to be safe as they dive into the internet. It is a big deal and assuming kids know not to give out information is a costly mistake. We know our students are careful in day to day life but looking at a computer screen instead of a face could give them a false sense of security! It's really easy to type things that are hard to say. Kids need to be taught to guard their personal information and identity from people they could meet online. I would start with the Brain Pop video and continue with a community circle on cares concerns and questions about internet safety.
2. Cyber Bullying - What it is and how it effects people. I think kids might be drawn to participate in these kinds of activities because of some of the same things I mentioned above. They feel secure behind the screen and not face to face. They might think that their identity is hidden or they won't get caught. Kids need to be aware of what it is and the consequences of these actions. Another reason to bring it to their attention is that they might be the victim already and not think that they can do anything about the bullying. It is their responsibity as a cyber citizen to be respectful and sensitive as they should be in everyday life. Having a classroom environment where kids feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and fears is important to the discussion of cyber bullying. I would start with a community circle on bullying and how it makes us feel, then I would show the brain pop on Cyber bullying and follow up with questions to start conversations about cyber bullying.
3. Social community guidelines - I think it is important to talk to our students about being a member of a social community. They may think that they can post whatever to the site and it's no big deal. They need to know that it can be retrieved and possibly used against them for a job they might want or a college they might want to go to! Have a lesson on what kinds of things would be appropriate to share and what might be better left off.
1. Security - It's very important that kids have a sense of what they need to do to be safe as they dive into the internet. It is a big deal and assuming kids know not to give out information is a costly mistake. We know our students are careful in day to day life but looking at a computer screen instead of a face could give them a false sense of security! It's really easy to type things that are hard to say. Kids need to be taught to guard their personal information and identity from people they could meet online. I would start with the Brain Pop video and continue with a community circle on cares concerns and questions about internet safety.
2. Cyber Bullying - What it is and how it effects people. I think kids might be drawn to participate in these kinds of activities because of some of the same things I mentioned above. They feel secure behind the screen and not face to face. They might think that their identity is hidden or they won't get caught. Kids need to be aware of what it is and the consequences of these actions. Another reason to bring it to their attention is that they might be the victim already and not think that they can do anything about the bullying. It is their responsibity as a cyber citizen to be respectful and sensitive as they should be in everyday life. Having a classroom environment where kids feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and fears is important to the discussion of cyber bullying. I would start with a community circle on bullying and how it makes us feel, then I would show the brain pop on Cyber bullying and follow up with questions to start conversations about cyber bullying.
3. Social community guidelines - I think it is important to talk to our students about being a member of a social community. They may think that they can post whatever to the site and it's no big deal. They need to know that it can be retrieved and possibly used against them for a job they might want or a college they might want to go to! Have a lesson on what kinds of things would be appropriate to share and what might be better left off.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Tool #10
App Reviews:
Math Drills lite - Looks like a good math workout. Need to look closer to see if it grows with advancing math skills. What I saw, would be great for 1-2 or a kiddo that needs number concepts support with operations.
Blackboard - Looks interesting. You have to enable it as a school and set up sections. The kids can then ask questions and have conversations about lessons. What they understood, what they didn't understand, kids can ask and answer questions.
Dot to Dot - Would probably use it with Kyle, Pre-K or Kinder. Would reinforce number or occupy time.
Brain POP featured movie - LOVE THIS!!! I would put just this app in a station, no matter what the topic in my science classroom. They would watch what ever clip happens to be featured for the day and record OH YEAHs and AH HAs in their science journals. VERY COOL! They LOVE Brain POP and useing this they would be able to take the graded quiz which they are DYING to do everytime we show one! LOVE IT!
NASA - AWESOME! Another great app for science. We take about 6-9 weeks to cover space science. Great resource! Will definately load it on my I-touches.
I am VERY excited about getting and using the I-touches and Macbooks for the classroom! We are going to have LOTS of fun using them!
Math Drills lite - Looks like a good math workout. Need to look closer to see if it grows with advancing math skills. What I saw, would be great for 1-2 or a kiddo that needs number concepts support with operations.
Blackboard - Looks interesting. You have to enable it as a school and set up sections. The kids can then ask questions and have conversations about lessons. What they understood, what they didn't understand, kids can ask and answer questions.
Dot to Dot - Would probably use it with Kyle, Pre-K or Kinder. Would reinforce number or occupy time.
Brain POP featured movie - LOVE THIS!!! I would put just this app in a station, no matter what the topic in my science classroom. They would watch what ever clip happens to be featured for the day and record OH YEAHs and AH HAs in their science journals. VERY COOL! They LOVE Brain POP and useing this they would be able to take the graded quiz which they are DYING to do everytime we show one! LOVE IT!
NASA - AWESOME! Another great app for science. We take about 6-9 weeks to cover space science. Great resource! Will definately load it on my I-touches.
I am VERY excited about getting and using the I-touches and Macbooks for the classroom! We are going to have LOTS of fun using them!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Tool #9
Jing is FUN!!! I think we could use the screen shots to show the kids how to find their SAN folder, log in to AR or First in Math or even how to post an entry on a blog! The great thing about taking the time to make the procedure clear through the screen shots is that if someone is absent, there you go. If you get a new student, there you go. You can save a lot of time with those forgetful kiddos if you have a place they can go on the computers to find the procedure to review before they go to the application! How FUN!! Hmmm...could be a real time saver and headache cure too! I would love to try Skype if someone wants to down load it and have a chat! Let me know! Justin and Kyle's dad travels a lot, so maybe that's something we need to look into for their evening chats! That would be cool too! I went on Google maps and this is what they had for the new Westwood! I captured the picture, it was sent to Screencast where I copied the embeding code to add here!
Monday, June 14, 2010
Tool #8
This video, Migration, I can use when we teach animal adaptations. I found it on the National Geographic website. Very cool! I could spend lots of time there just hunting around. They had LOTS of stuff on bugs (first grade). I think these would be high interest things for the kids to see. I think we could also attach them to a class blog or wiki and put it in a station for them to watch and comment.
This is also a National Geographic find! I told you I had fun there! It's called Tsunamis. This would be a great way to show what they are and how they effect people while we talk about changes in the earth's surface.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Tool #7
The Photostory was very easy to create! I thought the hardest part was finding the free usable music to add and that was fairly painless. As I type the video is still uploading...taking a few minutes...patience.... We shall see how long it takes and if I uploaded the correct file. Anyway, I liked that it put the pictures into a standard story, then I could edit them as I wanted to and make the story more my own. If I wanted to do a quicky...I could just upload the pics with a cute song and be done with it. I will try the other format too since we will have the Macs in our classrooms. Since we have a classroom camera, this tool can be very useful. They could make stories for just about anything the could take pictures of, from field day to projects and how they progress. I like the idea of the kids doing many of these photo stories to help them remember experiences they had. I also like that they have a digital portfolio in which to store this kind of work. Here's a little quicky tip I have for cameras and organizing student photos. I made a folder on my desktop in which I put a short cut to each of my 60 student's SAN folder. Then after I upload the pictures to my computer I can easily copy and drag the picture to the students folder. My first attempt at this digital yearbook we used a power point...I think this year we will upgrade our digital yearbook to Photostory or I-movie. Still uploading...painless for me...but hmmm! It's up to 83 messages!...153...175...and there was a problem with the upload! That was a long wait for a no!
Went back and loaded the .wmn file instead of the photostory file. It took about 5 min to load.
Went back and loaded the .wmn file instead of the photostory file. It took about 5 min to load.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Tool #6
Wiki's could be a great learning tool for the classroom considering that we will have the MacBooks available everyday for the kids to have access. With our former limited access to the internet through "reliable" computers this might have been a challenge. I looked at one Wiki created by a teacher and it looked like she had a page there for every topic they studied. The kids could import pictures, make comments and respond to the comments of classmates. It is a living document that the kids can add to at any point. Looks safe enough. The teacher can then post discussion questions and have students respond during their computer station time. I like it and I could think of a million different ways to use it in science. Watch out...we'll be eating...wiki-ing and bloging about it!! LOL!
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